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missioners, examined these fish carefully, and both he and the 

 Bailiff are of opinion from the external apj^earance of the fish 

 that they were true salmon, or at any rate belonged to one of 

 the two migratory species. 



After stripping the remaining ova (almost one thousand in 

 number) from the female, and applying the artificial process 

 of imjDregnation, both fish were returned to the river. 



Subsequently a few of the naturally deposited ova were with 

 judicious forethought taken from the rid, placed in one 

 of our hatching boxes mentioned, and then kept carefully 

 separated from other ova. The artificially impregnated 

 ova failed, but that so prudently taken from the rid 

 has hatched out ; and an examination of both the eggs 

 and the newly hatched fry has very materially strengthened 

 the impression in my mind that these fish were salmon, 

 for the eggs were not only larger than any we have 

 yet taken in the colony, but had exactly the pink tinge which 

 characterised the salmon eggs received from England. The 

 umbilical sac attached to the newly hatched fry is longer in 

 proportion to the width than that of the trout, and this was 

 a marked peculiarity in the fry hatched from the imported 

 salmon eggs. It is quite true that there is considerable 

 diversity both in the size and colour of the eggs of the 

 brown trout (Salmo fario), but the size of the eggs in 

 that species by no means depends upon the size of the 

 fish, as large eggs are often found in small fish; and 

 no cause can yet be assigned for this diversity in size, 

 but the difference in colour clearly depends on the 

 quality of the fish — the red-fleshed fish invariably producing 

 red eggs, and the white-fleshed fish the pale straw-coloured 

 eggs. As an actual fact, none of the originally imported 

 salmon trout or trout eggs approached in size either these 

 eggs taken from the rid in the Plenty or the imported salmon 

 eggs ; and very great interest will therefore attach to the 

 subsequent stages of the fry now hatched, because if they 

 are true emigrants that fact must be made manifest when the 

 deciduous, silvery scales which first hide the parr marks are 

 j)ut on, and the young fish assume the smolt stage, though 

 it may even then (as long since j)ointed out) be difficult, if 

 not impossible, to determine accurately to which of the two 

 migratory species the smolts may belong. 



A few days after the foregoing was wi'itten — namely, on 

 the 15th day of October last — a strong fresh came down the 

 Plenty, during which a school of about a dozen salmonoids 

 found their way into the water-course which supplies the 

 ponds, being evidently bound seawards. Mr. Read was so 

 much struck with the difference between these fish and trout 

 fry of the same size, that he preserved two of them in spirits, 



I 



